One thing I did with the price column – I added another column and multiplied the quantity price to get a total. For example: I need 4 pkg. of spaghetti noodles and they are $1.23 each. I multiplied the two cells to get the total. Then I added up the column with the total amounts! Can you tell I am excited? LOL!

The idea of the rotation, you dont need to eat one day of storage food in one day, you can make a meal here and a meal there, depending on what you have stored. This all just depends on shelf life of the items you are storing.

My question is, how would you use your food storage if you really had to in an emergency if you cant when it's not? Life is harder when a situation is bad enough to rely on that stored food.

What i dont understand here about your question, what is it you are storing that will get you fat? I've actually found my body has adjusted well to stored food rotation, I actually lost some weight and make smarter decisions about my eating. Meat for instance in many other parts of the world is used as a flavoring instead of a main course, and yet thanks to other very normal and natural (as well as storable) foods, they still easily consume enough protein, our main reasoning for consuming meat in the first place.

Keep in mind that the modern anti carb ideal is not always accurate, you just need to consider eating smarter, more whole carbs that include protein (wheat based products are great for this). In my storage we keep some sugar and molasses, but other than that there's very little unhealthy stuff in the stockpile.

Keep in mind, decades and centuries ago, people stored food and rotated it as well, yet were perfectly healthy doing so. What's unnatural is the paycheck to paycheck convenience lifestyle we've changed over to that leaves us vulnerable to just about any possibility of something going wrong in life.

On the idea of refrigerated/frozen goods, it never hurts to have them, but i'd never rely on them. Even in places where natural disasters of an epic scale don't generally happen, things unexpected CAN happen. Isn't the idea here to try to prepare for the unexpected?

Good idea on the spreadsheet. Once a person has completed this, it might be a good idea to look over what you've got and make sure this is realistic based on the situations. You might not get opportunity to supplement your supply, so plan accordingly. Make sure you and your family are getting enough protein, calories and such with what you are storing. You also really should look to vitamin supplements as well.

And Tang, ye scurvy dogs.

“Another conclusion we have come up with is that an economic crisis (personal or national) is much more likely to occur then some major event that makes you loose power for weeks and months on end. So it would be a really big blessing to have your freezer, fridge and pantry stocked in case of job loss, or injury preventing you from work, or any of the other many things that could happen.”

While this is certainly true – as someone who went through Hurricane Andrew, I can honestly say… weeks and months without power are absolutely viable. So, you cannot always count on power. Which is why I also can and dehydrate. )

-Christine-

Your frozen fruits and veggies (if you buy them on sale in the big bags) can be dehydrated. Fresh fruits and veggies can be dehydrated. Your homemade cream of soups – can even be dehydrated.

In my pantries I have store purchased cans, home canned and dehydrated. The reason is variety and palatability. Peas for instance, whether home canned or store can, are mushy. Yes, they can be frozen and do great, but, dehydrate them and you can store even more in the same amount of space. To use, just throw them in with your soups, sauces, etc. or rehydrate. Just don't waste the water that you use, use it for something else, like, your soups, sauces, etc. )

You can make homemade banana chips, apple chips, etc. for healthier snacks to go into storage as well as your 72-hour kits. For long-term storage, just put into mylar bags with oxygen pack (after completely dehydrating), seal, date and identify contents then put them away.

No, I do not work for any dehydrating company, just someone who likes variety, good food and loves that I can store 2 to 3 times more dehydrated food in the same space as 'regular' food. Example: Approx. 1 cup of corn kernels will dehydrate down to approximately 1/3 cup. How cool is that!

I roast red peppers then dehydrate them – grab a handful and throw them into soups and sauces. Makes it that much better.

Just a suggestion to go along with all the great info that you have, and all the great stuff that you have already done.

Next time, for long-term storage – we'll get you canning! )

-Christine-

As for bread mixes in the fridge … we make our bread from scratch with fresh ground whole wheat and other shelf stable ingredients. So nothing needs to go in the fridge. I will admit though I am considering buying a separate FREEZER because I am finding so many great deals on foods I want to stock up on that need to be refrigerated or frozen.

So here is my question: I'm noticing that in many of your recipies you have foods that are not freezable (such as sour cream or cream cheese). So do you just have a 3 month supply of these foods in your fridge? How do you do that?! Also, don't you keep all of your bread mixes in the fridge? You must have a pretty full fridge?

I can’t seem to download the Excel Spreadsheet, do I have to have the program, Excel in order to download? Thanks

Then when you input the amount for that meal you would do it as a fraction of that 16 oz jar. So half a cup is 4 oz so you would put in 1/4 or 0.25 for that amount. Then the spreadsheet will calculate how many “1/2 cups” you would need in 90 days and give you the number of 16 oz jars you’d need to buy to equal that amount.

If you haven’t watch the tutorial video yet, check it out. It really helps!

I started with the 2 week plan and long term staples like buckets of wheat, beans, and cases of #10 cans from different places like Emergency Essentials and the LDS site.
Slowly I added more and more as has been suggested to gain the 3 mo, then 6 mo. up to a year and beyond.

Once you get your first ‘layer’ in it all becomes cheaper too because you can replinish on sale as suggested here. You save money.

There is just nothing like filling your pantry and seeing all those cans and jars and boxes all lined up.

I store they everyday stuff for months and years too.
If you use it, most canned things last 2 years. Rotate it and there will be no problem.
Tuna, corned beef, Spam are all things you can store for short and long term. I have tuna dated 2012.
Spam I think lasts forever or at least 20 years lol.
My kids LIKE it so I store it.

So YES store more everyday foods beyond the 3 months. The key is to fill in your gaps along the way so you dont have a weeks worth of macaroni and cheese and 10 years worth of tuna.

Well, I downloaded Julie’s amazing excel program at the beginning of November and immediately knew where my gaps were – yeah! I focused that month on making sure that I had a solid three month supply of our typical meals. I AM SO GLAD THAT I DID!

The LAYOFF fairy hit our house the day before Thanksgiving with no severence package. We have been LIVING on our food storage since that time and guess what … we’re fine. Thanks to Julie’s program, I knew exactly how to prepare for an emergency I never thought would come, and so soon.

Being unemployed is no fun, but I can’t tell you how much peace there is in preparation. Having a well stocked, well rounded pantry has meant stability and high moral at our house. It has meant that our kids aren’t scared about what’s going on because our meals snacks are still the same and Mom and Dad aren’t worried about buying food vs. paying the mortgage.

This program is so easy! Julie did all the hard work. All you have to do is drop in your menus, ingredients and BAM! – instant shopping and inventory. I am their number one fan … someone who has already given this system a real life trial and thinks it’s great.

We have pondered over and over again this VERY topic. We finally came up with a couple of conclusions.

While storing ONLY items that are shelf stable, and require no power is probably ideal – it can be so intimidating and overwhelming that people just get stuck thinking they have to do THAT and don’t do ANYTHING.

Another conclusion we have come up with is that an economic crisis (personal or national) is much more likely to occur then some major event that makes you loose power for weeks and months on end. So it would be a really big blessing to have your freezer, fridge and pantry stocked in case of job loss, or injury preventing you from work, or any of the other many things that could happen.

We’re trying to make sure we have our long terms foods- grains, legumes, baking supplies in stock, and rotating them – but for the 3 month-supply we have found that doing the normal foods you normally eat is a MUCH more attainable goal and easier to start. Once you have that done, sure, explore the more shelf stable stuff, or canned meat, but it’s better to start somewhere.

More then anything we have learned that starting with small steps, you figure out what works for you and each next step becomes so much EASIER. We are so grateful for all we have learned.

Good luck. We know exactly how you feel.

Now, I realize the if I were without power, that I’d lose that gold mine of frozen storage, so I shouldn’t rely solely on that. But if I stocked up on only shelf stable things – like canned chicken, which I don’t like as much as the stuff I cook, dice and freeze – I worry that I’d never use it before it went bad. What are your opinions on that?

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this for me (and everyone else out there). It is really a blessing to have so many things explained so plainly, so that I, who am easily intimidated by things I’ve not tried before, can get a grasp on all of this. I hope you see many blessings for all you’re sharing and the time you sacrifice.

I also had the same problem as Laura King, but I fooled around with Edit at the top of page. I can’t remember what I did, but it worked.

Thanks for a great program!!

This is such a great site. I am now working diligently to purchase my three month supply of normal foods. I want to interject a critical point that I have incorporated as I really felt the need to do this step for myself. I have begun the process of purchasing the basics of personal hygeine in this step (just a three months supply for now). I have three girls, a husband and myself, and I could not imagine being without tampons, wipes, toilet paper or shampoo, laundry supplies, etc. so, I have begun to purchase enough of one thing, each week that will last 3 months. Hope that helps. I have had to live off food storage before as my husband was out of work for several months. I was so glad that we had these items available to us.

Thanks for the great website!

Thanks for all of your hard work, this site has helped our entire congregation obtain our food storage easier.

I am sending it to my mother in law, who is going to have a class at her church.

http://Twitter.com/ZoomJer
http://tinyurl.com/JerryAulenbach

-Jerry

Prepare B4 Emergency, I’m glad you found our site and hope that it helps you as you get started. We have found that by working on this site it keeps us motivated and accountable and helps us do a better job at working on our own food storage.

For the PLAN, use this formula: =IF(B4=0,0,B4/D4)
For the INVENTORY AND SALE SHEET, use this: =IF(D2=0,0,D2/E2)

The IF statement says if a cell equals zero, then put zero, otherwise run the calculation. Hope that makes sense.

Thank You
Laura M.King